The era of digital marketing.

Digital marketing refers to the promotion of a brand or a product online. We now live in an era, where there are 170 million internet users. All the users would be familiar with at least one online marketing portal.

The history of digital marketing.

The term digital marketing was first introduced after the launch of “Archie” the first search engine. The first clickable web-ad banner was launched in 1993. The year 1996, saw the introduction of engines like HotBot, Looksmart and Alexa. Digital marketing emerged stronger with the launch of Yahoo in 1994. Yahoo initiated the first e-commerce transaction over the Net market. The first ever social media site, SixDegrees.com was launched in 1997. 1998 was indeed a year of the breakthrough as Yahoo started Yahoo! Web search. 1998 marks the birth of Google. Microsoft launched MSN. In the year 2000, there was an internet bubble burst, as SixDegrees.com shuts down. All the smaller search engines got wiped out in 1998. In 2001, the first mobile marketing campaign by Universal Music was introduced. 2002 saw the big hit of LinkedIn. In 2003, WordPress released the launch of Myspace. In 2004, the digital market was shifted to a whole another level with Facebook going live, Google going public and the start of Gmail. 2005 saw the launch of YouTube. 2006 saw the launch of MS live search and Twitter. In 2007, Tumblr was introduced. The introduction of the iPhone became a huge hit!

Progress over the last ten years.

In 2008, China overtook the USA in the largest number of internet users.2008 saw the launch of Spotify. In 2009, Google launched real-time search engine results. Google affiliate network shuts down too. 2010 saw the launch of WhatsApp and Google Buzz. In 2011, Google Buzz shut down. Google+ and Google Panda was launched in 2011. Statistics in 2011, showed internet usage overtook T.V viewership among the Youth. In 2012, Social Media budgeted up to 64%. Google Knowledge Graph was launched in 2012. Google acquired Tumblr in 2013. 2014 statistics showed that Mobile exceeded personal computer internet usage. The same year, Facebook Messenger app tailored ads on LinkedIn, iWatch, and Facebook Look Back was also launched. In 2014, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acquired WhatsApp. In 2015, Snapchat began “Discover” feature. The upcoming of predictive analytics, wearable tech, and Content Marketing Facebook launched “Instant Articles”. These are some of the significant milestones of digital marketing.

Advantages of Digital Marketing

Internet usage has gone up higher than the traditional marketing techniques. Digital marketing is the future of marketing. Digital marketing helps to target desirable customers, reaches out to a more massive crowd, is accessible any time of the day, makes payment easier and offers employment opportunities as well.